Unipet, the makers of my wild birds’ beloved berry pellets, have created a new eco brand and version of he insect pellets and block. Their new brand is Honest 2 Nature and their first products are the Insect Eco Suet Pellets and Blocks with compostable packaging. The pellets are available in three sizes - 1kg (£5.99), 12.55kg (£29.99) and 25.1kg (£53.99). The suet cake/blocks are available as single blocks or in a pack of 10 (£14.50). I was gifted two packs of the pellets for my garden birds to test. Unipet have invested 2 years and £750,000 building a new plant and technology to create this new eco range. which is completely plastic free and sustainable. The packaging is compostable and was tested for 18 months to ensure it is OPRL approved and suitable for composting/ recycling.
The pellets themselves are made from non beef suet. The beef suet has been replaced with pure insect fat and insect protein. The new insect eco pellets contain wheat flour, fats, oils, wheat starch, and dried insects. 98% of the ingredients are sourced from within the U.K. and the insect element is provided by Protix in the Netherlands. This reduces the carbon footprint of the product.
My wild birds have eaten 87 boxes of the berry recipe Suet To Go pellets over the last few years and have turned their beaks up at any other pellet. When I put the insect eco pellets out in their seed feeders and mesh tray one of the blackbirds was the first to come and check it out. He was happy to tuck in as were a few of the younger starlings. I noticed that although they ate the pellets they didn’t go down as quickly as the berry recipe pellets.
The pellets didn’t have the same bright colour and smell to initially attract the birds. I also think my wild birds have got used to the taste of the berry version and have the bird equivalent of a human’s sweet tooth, in their case a sweet beak. The younger birds tucked in straight way it was the older ones who still wanted the berry pellets. When I mixed the two and they could eat both together they tucked in. The eco pellets did feel slightly tougher to the touch and I noticed that when I left both pellets out overnight in the ground feeder trays in the rain the eco version maintained its shape and was edible whilst the berry version went slightly sticky and mushy and had to be thrown away.
I love the ethos of the new company. Unipet already create high quality suet products and their next step has been to improve sustainability and look at how their product impacts the environment. By removing the plastic packaging and their carbon imprint they have taken innovative steps with these new products and although my birds with their sweet beaks still prefer the berry pellets they will now be mixed in with the eco pellets so my little garden family can do their bit for the environment.
Update: I purchased a 12.55kg bag of Eco pellets from garden wildlife direct as the two male blackbirds seem to prefer them. The sparrows, female blackbirds, blue tits and robins still gravitate towards the berry recipe but will eat the eco ones if mixed together with the eco insect.
I was gifted the eco insect pellets by Unipet but this did not affect my review.
